I lived there, and there are people like this - ummmmm, nothing else to say really....
A New Zealand bank irritated the wrong customer by declining his application for a mortgage. After hearing the reason for his rejection, Roger Griffiths decided to make life difficult for the bank and withdrew his savings — $190,000 in $20 bills.
update: i just found this addon to do the same thing: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/992
Firefox only (Win/Mac/Linux): Have you ever noticed how some web sites automatically reload the page every minute or two? It's frustrating, unnecessary, and thankfully can be easily disabled in Firefox.
While there could be some valid reasons for reloading the page, most of the time it's just a way to artificially increase pageviews—at the cost of your bandwidth and CPU cycles. To disable the automatic refresh, you can type about:config into the location bar, and then filter by the following setting:
accessibility.blockautorefresh
Once you've found it, simply double-click on the key to change the value to true, and web pages won't be able to reload the page.
In anticipation of being called a Communist I will start by saying: Communism and Socialism are entirely different political systems, that's why there are two different words. The United States of America has been a socialist country since before any of us were born. at the latest we adopted socialism in the 1930s with the creation of Social Security Retirement and Disability. At the earliest we adopted socialism with the creation of FREE PUBLIC schools and libraries shortly after the Revolution. What were those commie founding founders thinking! There will always be room for improvement with any government program but I rather like the idea of every kid in America getting to go to school regardless of whether their family pays for it themselves or not and I was glad that my dad got to stay in his own home and had decent enough medical care at the end of his life even if paying into Social Security isn't the funnest thing I can think of.
That's the whole idea behind living as a part of a civilized society rather than in a cabin in Idaho with your pet rock. If want to rid America of every vestige of socialism then we would need to privatize the police and fire departments and garbage collection too - how dare I have to subsidize my neighbor's garbage collection, he always has twice as much out there as I do and yet he pays the same as everyone else on the street. I better start putting my money aside so I can afford to pay the bill when there is an emergency and I need to call the police or the fire department because without socialism it's going to have to be a pay as you go system there as well.
We are 40+ years behind EVERY other "first world" country in providing universal health care, and it's finally beginning to catch up to us. Our patchwork health care system of employer based and privately purchased health insurance is now the most expensive per citizen in the world and yet we are always number 10 - 30 or worse in objective studies of the level and of health care received. That's not a very efficient use of our GDP or a good return on investment per dollar. One of the many reasons the American auto industry is lagging behind those of Japan and Germany is that in Germany and Japan the auto manufacturers do not have health care benefits to work into the cost of their final product as all of their employees are already covered. If you look at the financial spreadsheets of any American corporation you will find that health care benefits are one of the largest expense items listed. We are forcing our own industries to compete against those of other nations on a completely un-level playing field due to the fact that our companies have this huge expense and other nation's companies do not.
And finally it's just a matter of basic humanity. Not offering basic health services to every American regardless of their financial success or abilities is simply the human and civilized thing to do at this point when people's lives often depend on access to the health system just as much as their lives might have depended on access to food and water in the past. If you would read the proposals you would see that different options are being offered and our informed response to the proposals on hand is our last chance to influence the outcome of the end product that will be passed. The option most likely to pass is a hybrid of employer/private insurance which you are free to keep if you really like it and a government option. The existing health insurance industry has put out two contradictory messages to fight any change - A: government health insurance will be so awful no one would want it and B: government health insurance will be so popular that private insurance can't possibly compete in the open market. If A is true then the insurance companies have nothing to worry about. If B is true then the insurance industry loses out and we the people win. I don't see how either scenario would spell the end of the end of the world.
(thanks to Misty for the inspiration to write these thoughts down.)
Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world - (song is Please don't go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.
Michael Bussee
My name is Michael Bussee. I want to thank you for this opportunity to tell my story. Thirty years ago, I helped create EXODUS International. Today, I am here to apologize. Today, I am a licensed Marriage and Family therapist, a father, a born-again, evangelical Christian—and a proud gay man. But thirty years ago, I was not so proud.
In fact, I grew up hating my gay feelings. I endured name-calling, bullying and beatings. Why did the other kids seem to hate me so much? I didn’t choose to have these feelings and wanted to get rid of them. I wanted more than anything to be “normal,” to fit in—to fall in love, settle down, have kids. I desperately wanted to be straight. But how?
At about age 12, I began a personal quest to find the “cure” for homosexuality. I made a decision to embark on my own private exodus—to find the way out of homosexuality. My search led me to God. As a senior in High School, I accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. That decision changed my life forever and I remain a committed evangelical Christian to this day.
Then, in 1974, I found Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim and began work as one of their volunteer hotline counselors. At first, I told no one about my gay feelings. Finally, I had to “come clean.” I told the Hotline director that I was a “Christian homosexual.” He told me there was “absolutely no such thing.” He said that if I was truly a Christian, then I was “ no longer gay in God’s eyes.”
I needed to believe that I was now heterosexual – to “name it and claim it.” God would do the miracle over time. “Keep praying,” they told me. If I had enough faith, I would eventually be “set free.” I wanted it more than anything and sincerely believed it would come true.
At that time, there was no ministry to gays at our mega-church, so my friend, Jim Kaspar and I decided to invent one. In 1975. We created EXIT—which stood for “EX-gay Intervention Team.” (Sort of like “Ghostbusters” – only gay!) We began providing individual counseling sessions, weekly support groups, Bible studies, and prayer meetings. Even though we had absolutely no formal training, and had only been calling ourselves “ex-gay” for a few months, we were suddenly the “experts.”
Pastors and therapists began referring clients to us. We wrote materials on “How To Help The Homosexual” and gave our “testimonies of change” at church conferences and on radio and television talk shows -- including Pat Robertson’s “700 Club.” Robertson kept asking if we thought we had once had “gay demons.” He seemed disappointed when we both told him “no.”
In 1976, we learned of others like us who were setting up small “change” or “deliverance” ministries in their areas. In September of 1976, at Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim, EXIT hosted the first ever conference of “ex-gays.” A handful of ministry leaders along with approximately 60 delegates voted to form a loose-knit coalition of ministries. We called it EXODUS. We thought that, called like Moses and directed my God, we could and would lead many gays and lesbians to the heterosexual “promised land.”
I need to say that some had a positive, life-changing experience attending our Bible studies and support groups. They experienced God’s love and the welcoming fellowship of others who knew the struggle. There were some real “changes”—but not one of the hundreds of people we counseled became straight.
Instead, many of our clients began to fall apart – sinking deeper into patterns of guilt, anxiety and self-loathing. Why weren’t they “changing”? The answers from church leaders made the pain even worse: “You might not be a real Christian.” “You don’t have enough faith.” “You aren’t praying and reading the Bible enough.” “Maybe you have a demon.” The message always seemed to be: “You’re not enough. You’re not trying hard enough. You don’t have enough faith.”
Some simply dropped out and were never heard from again. I think they were the lucky ones. Others became very self-destructive. One young man got drunk and deliberately drove his car into a tree. Another (a fellow leader of the ex-gay movement) told me that he had left EXODUS and was now going to straight bars – looking for someone to beat him up. He said the beatings made him feel less guilty – atoning for his sin. One of my most dedicated clients, Mark, took a razor blade to his genitals, slashed himself repeatedly, and then poured drain-cleaner on the wounds—because after months of celibacy he had a “fall.”
In the midst of all of this, my own faith in the EXODUS movement was crumbling. No one was really becoming “ex-gay.” Who were we fooling? As one current EXODUS leader admitted, we were just “Christians with homosexual tendencies who would rather not have those tendencies.” By calling ourselves “ex-gay” we were lying to ourselves and to others. We were hurting people.
In 1979, another EXODUS pioneer (Gary Cooper) and I decided to leave EXODUS—and our wives. For years, we had both firmly believed that the EXODUS process would make us straight. Instead, we realized we had fallen in love with each other! We came out publicly against EXODUS in 1991. Our story is featured in the documentary “One Nation Under God.” Gary died of AIDS shortly before the film was completed.
Since then, I have remained one of EXODUS’s most persistent critics – not because I want to “deny hope.” On the contrary, I want to affirm that God loves every person—and that God’s love and forgiveness does indeed change lives. It has certainly changed mine. It just didn’t make me straight. I have found harmony between my sexuality and my spirituality—and I am hopeful that others can do the same. Everyone’s journey is different. My own private exodus has been an incredible journey.
I have lost many friends and lovers to AIDS. I have been fired from two jobs – just for being gay. And five years ago, I survived a violent and senseless hate crime that nearly took my life. I was beaten and then stabbed in the back by gang members yelling, “faggot” as they attacked. My best friend, Jeffery Owens, was not so lucky. He was stabbed in the back five times and bled to death on an operating table.
In spite of all of this, I consider myself a survivor. I am a happy, relatively well-adjusted, evangelical Christian, gay man. I am in a loving committed relationship with a great guy, my partner Richard, and I serve as an Elder in my local Presbyterian church. I love God and I love life.
And I have hope. I believe that we are making headway. Groups like EXODUS will go out of business when people no longer feel that they must deny who they really are, to attempt to become what they really are not.
Until then, for those wonderful people, (gay, ex-gay and ex-ex-gay) who have blessed my life and enriched my journey, I am truly thankful. And to those I may have harmed by my involvement in EXODUS, I am truly sorry.
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http://www.towleroad.com/2009/07/nutty-pa-group-campaigns-against-marriage-equality-in-maine.html"
as far as the lovely above video goes all i can submit for your consideration is:
1: "how is homosexuality natural?" - can he not read English? Or is plain English also now suspect in the eyes of the religious/cultural right?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexual_behavior_in_animals
2: I'm not particularly worried because this is already settled - be realistic and move forward 20 years and it will seem as silly as race based marriage. Look up generation based views on homosexuality, opponents may win a battle, but they will not win the war. Part of the reason that I am not particularly interested in the "gay rights struggle" so much anymore; besides military, marriage and the right not to be fired for being gay, there is nothing left to "the gay agenda"... what else could we realistically want?
CNN interviewed the hosts of the show "Mythbusters" about the conspiracy theorists who believe the Apollo Moon landing was faked, and the their extensive efforts debunking the claims of the Moon landing deniers.
However, buried towards the end of the interview is a gem of video of Buzz Aldrin, famously one of the first astronauts to walk on the Moon, being confronted by one of these moon landing skeptics several years ago. The man angrily calls Aldrin a "coward" and a "liar." Aldrin tells the man to get away from him, and when he refuses, Aldrin promptly punches him in the face.
The conspiracy theorist tried to sue Aldrin but the judge threw out the case.
....So that's what they're doing.
The Seattle Times says that the ubiqitious coffee giant is testing several new stores in which there will be no Starbucks branding at all. Instead, the coffee shops will be branded with "community names," like "15th Avenue Coffee and Tea," in Seattle.
Not only will the coffee be rebranded with the "15th Ave." name — the cafe will serve beer and wine and "host live music and poetry readings and sell espresso from a manual machine," or, in other words, not be a Starbucks.
all these photos were sent in to the consumerist.com website by readers:
"You know Jesus said 'You got to put Him before mother-father-brother sister? Hitler, Lenin, Mao, that's what they taught the kids. Mao even had the kids killing their own mother and father. But it wasn't murder. It was for building the new nation. The new kingdom." - Doug Coe, head of the C Street Family
They're followers of a political religion that embraces elitism, disdains democracy, and pursues power for its members the better to "advance the Kingdom." They say they're working for Jesus, but their Christ is a power-hungry, inside-the-Beltway savior not many churchgoers would recognize. Sexual peccadilloes aside, the Family acts today like the most powerful lobby in America that isn't registered as a lobby -- and is thus immune from the scrutiny attending the other powerful organizations like Big Pharma and Big Insurance that exert pressure on public policy.
The Family likes to call itself a "Christian Mafia," but it began 74 years ago as an anti-New Deal coalition of businessmen convinced that organized labor was under the sway of Satan. The Great Depression, they believed, was a punishment from God for what they viewed as FDR's socialism. The Family's goal was the "consecration" of America to God, first through the repeal of New Deal reforms, then through the aggressive expansion of American power during the Cold War. They called this a "Worldwide Spiritual Offensive," but in Washington, it amounted to the nation's first fundamentalist lobby. Early participants included Southern Sens. Strom Thurmond, Herman Talmadge and Absalom Willis Robertson -- Pat Robertson's father. Membership lists stored in the Family's archive at the Billy Graham Center at evangelical Wheaton College in Illinois show active participation at any given time over the years by dozens of congressmen.
Today's roll call is just as impressive: Men under the Family's religio-political counsel include, in addition to Ensign, Coburn and Pickering, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham, both R-S.C.; James Inhofe, R-Okla., John Thune, R-S.D., and recent senators and high officials such as John Ashcroft, Ed Meese, Pete Domenici and Don Nickles. Over in the House there's Joe Pitts, R-Penn., Frank Wolf, R-Va., Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., and John R. Carter, R-Texas. Historically, the Family has been strongly Republican, but it includes Democrats, too. There's Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, for instance, a vocal defender of putting the Ten Commandments in public places, and Sen. Mark Pryor, the pro-war Arkansas Democrat responsible for scuttling Obama's labor agenda. Sen. Pryor explained to me the meaning of bipartisanship he'd learned through the Family: "Jesus didn't come to take sides. He came to take over." And by Jesus, the Family means the Family.
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let The Rotten Tomatoes Show's Brett Erlich do it for you
